ECONOMYNEXT – Sri Lanka stocks closed on mixed sentiments, with the All Share Price Index down 0.08 percent and the S&P SL20 up 0.05 percent, despite US president Donald Trump’s and treasury secretary Scott Bessent’s comments on a possible global trade war ‘de-escalation’.
The Colombo Stock Exchange’s broader ASPI closed 11.87 points weaker at 15,543.99, while the more liquid S&P SL20 was 18.84 points up at 4,608.41.
Trump told reporters taxes “Won’t be anywhere near as high as 145%”, and that they will come down significantly.
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Markets expect ‘de-escalation’ in China tariff war on Bessent comments
The CSE was highly volatile in the day crossing into negative and positive territories quite rapidly.
However, global markets rallied up after the US president’s comment.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 closed up 1.89 percent, or 648.03, at 34,868.63, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng ended up 2.37 percent, or 510.30 point, at 22,072.62 while China’s SSE composite index fell 0.1 percent, or 3,4019, to 3296.3552 after a highly volatile trading session.
In Sri Lanka, some diversified companies and export stocks fell.
Hayleys Fabrics closed 0.73 percent weaker at 41.00 rupees.
Hayleys subsidiary export shares, Dipped Products closed flat while Haycarb (up at 78.80 rupees), an activated carbon exporter and Hayleys Fiber (up at 48.00 rupees), an exporter of coir products, traded up.
Turnover was 1.1 billion rupees while the share volumes fell to a 38,475,892 from 42,359,372 in the previous session.
Top negative contributors to the ASPI were Lion Brewery (closed 4.82 percent weaker at 1,225.00 rupees), Melstacorp (ended 0.78 percent down at 126.50 rupees), Central Finance Company (fell 1.27 percent to 193.75 rupees), NTB (down 1.85 percent to 185.25 rupees) and DFCC Bank (dropped 1 percent to 103.00 rupees).
Most active volumes were seen in Sunshine Holdings at 6,345,544 (turnover 139,683,169.60 rupees), Brown’s Investments at 4,473,121 (turnover 33,522,096.70 rupees), John Keells Holdings at 3,868,878 (turnover 76,430,112.20 rupees) and Agarapatana Plantation at 1,668,097 (turnover 23,387,299.50 rupees). (Colombo/Apr23/2025)
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